travelin' soldier
by vartamin
Summary: Katara signs up for the Army to chase after her father and brother who are already in the military, and meets a cute, if grumpy, waiter with a similar history in a tea shop she stops at while she waits for her shuttle. They trade traumas, secrets and eventually decide to keep in touch after she sets out. (inspired by the Dixie Chicks song "Travelin' Soldier")


Katara reread the address and time penned in her own messy handwriting on the small, creased note she held in her hand. The words stood out against the glare of the sun in her eyes and she adjusted the short cap that had come with the rest of her uniform but didn't quite fit comfortably on her head even with her hair in a low, messy bun tucked just beneath.

Caldera, Fire Nation

2200h departure

As it was closer to 3 in the afternoon, and she didn't find standing around in full standard issue army garb in the hot air particularly favourable, Katara wandered from her spot at the lonely bus stop over to a small, hole-in-the-wall tea shop right near as if in a daze. She ducked inside slowly and took her time taking in the stylings, the traditional paintings and myriad of creative masks that decorated the walls before heading over towards a booth. She relaxed into the seat and closed her eyes, tilting her head to rest behind her to mentally prepare herself for the days ahead.

Katara Hakoda, headstrong and independent. Like her father and brother before her, was joining the corps. She tugged at the thick collar of her shirt, the heat pouring out of the air in the tea shop was almost as hot as outside. She thought back to the biting cold of the South where her tribe lay and missed it so terribly she swore it ached. Katara's fingers lightly traced her mother's pendant hanging over her throat and took a steadying breath to calm the slight jump of her stomach. She was turning her entire life upside down, she thought to herself that she had the right to feel a little nervous.

After a couple minutes she heard someone shuffle around awkwardly to her side and quietly clear their throat. She shot up, eyes opening and back straightening from her lazy slouch in record speed. The waiter next to her jumped too, he was tall, lean and pretty, with a large scar surrounding one eye and traveling all the way up to his hairline where shaggy hair fell over it like a dark, messy halo around his head. His eyes were almost gold under the warm light inside the tea shop of The Jasmine Dragon but were ringed with dark bags, the telltale sign of sleepless nights.

Cute , she thought.

His cheeks brightened slightly at her stare and he gripped tighter to the small notepad he held as if annoyed by it. "Are you gonna order?" He asked abruptly, breaking into her mind through the pleasurable silence. "Or are you just gonna sit there and…" He shrugged his shoulders and gestured in her general direction.

Ah and rude too, how unfortunately my type.

"How about… a tea." the words came out slow, as if they were a question. She wasn't really sure what they had for a menu, had forgotten to look when she sat down.

The waiter raised a skillfully arched eyebrow and she swore she saw the curve of a smirk grace his face, his golden eyes turning devilish and playful. It was gone before she could blink, but his voice still carried the tinge of an arrogance that looked really, really good on him.

"Oh?" He asked, tapping his pen rhythmically on his notepad in a way that seemed like it was supposed to be intimidating. "Really? I thought you came into this tea shop for our delicious burger breakfast special, my bad." He said, shrugged his shoulders again and turned in a dramatic flurry to leave before pausing and deciding better of it. "I'll… come back when you're ready." He said sheepishly, Katara thought she saw his scarred cheek darken in a blush as he left but told herself it was just a trick of the lighting.

Katara pulled the short menu towards her and, after a couple longing glances at the waiter's retreating back, started perusing it. It didn't take long for her to decide on her order so she took a long look around the shop. The Jasmine Dragonwas surprisingly empty. A slim woman with long, dark bangs that fell over one side of her face who had a large flaming tattoo on her shoulder sat comfortably in the corner. Her legs were spread out and what looked like a whip glinted under the light on a holster on her hip. The lady caught Katara staring, she smirked with full, red lips, winked and traced the line of her whip suggestively.

Katara quickly turned her head away, blushing. There was an old man behind the counter at the front. He looked kind and content. Laugh lines pulled at his eyes and the corners of his mouth, softening his face into something warm and loving. She saw the way his lips curled into a fond, familiar smile as the cute waiter talked to him, she saw the way the waiter softened under his gaze into someone that looked kinder, less rough around the edges, more calm and smoothed over.

Really cute , she decided.

Katara rested her head on her hand and swooned just a little as she waited. She knew it couldn't last. That these feelings had to be chaste and fleeting, but that didn't stop her from wishing she could squeeze herself into the young, scarred waiter's life. He caught her staring, but this time she didn't look away, and he made his way over.

"Ready now?" He asked, perhaps a bit softer than earlier and she bit her lip, looking back down to the menu in front of her for a moment.

"Just a jasmine, please." She glanced up and his expression was sympathetic, if a little down. His eyebrows pulled into the cutest frown.

"Shipping out soon?" He asked, biting his lip and gesturing to her uniform.

"Oh!" She startled, had almost forgotten she had somewhere to be and quickly checked the clock on the wall. Still 5 hours to go. "Y-yeah," she recovered, "I've got a while though… if you're wondering." Katara bat her eyes at him, a practiced, coy smile tracing her lips. She sound she just couldn't resist. The waiter scoffed and rolled his eyes, or eye, the scarred one didn't seem to move much. Although he would have been much more believably exasperated if he hadn't been blushing up a storm.

He almost turned to leave again but decided against it at the last moment, awkwardly shifting on his feet. He furrowed his brow, skin pinching into another frown. "What made you want join? The army, I mean." He tapped his pen on his flip book in what looked to be a nervous habit. "That's not usually something you take on lightly, I guess."

Katara cocked her head at him, surprised he had actually taken an interest. "I'm from a small tribe down in the Southern Water Tribe. All, or most at least, of our men join as a right of passage." She paused, wondered how much to divulge to a stranger but decided she liked him well enough to expand on it. "They send the money home and use the benefits as a community to repair our infrastructure, build schools and houses and get an education later that they can bring back to the tribe." Katara sucked in a breath thinking of all the people she was leaving behind, teary farewells still fresh in her mind. She shrugged. "My dad and brother are serving right now and I hope to see them. Guess I was just tired of getting left behind." The waiter nodded silently.

"That's very honourable." He said softly after a moment, but he seemed sad. He left quickly to bring her her jasmine and Katara wondered if she had offended him, angered him in some way, because he was quieter than before, more subdued. She felt a stab of guilt and when he came back with her tea she reached out just before he turned to leave. She wanted to make this right.

"Um – sorry, I don't know your name." His eyes widened and Katara winced. "I mean-"

"Zuko."

"Hmm?" She inquired.

"My name is Zuko."

Katara smiled and Zuko thought maybe it was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen. His heart wavered on a beat and he cleared his throat to hide the stammer that tried to crawl out from his chest.

"Well, Zuko , I've got a long time before the transport shuttle comes. Is there actually anything to do around here to waste time?"

Zuko looked at her as if contemplating something in his head, he looked to the counter where the old man was, then back at her a couple times before seeming to come to a conclusion.

"Yeah, actually. There's a boardwalk a few minutes away, the sunsets are really pretty there." He paused for a second. "I can take you if you'd like. I mean, I've got the rest of the day off if you wait like 10 minutes." He rubbed the back of his neck and he seemed sheepish, hopeful almost.

Katara blinked, her heart fluttered in her chest and she laughed, smile wide and bright. "That would be great, thanks."

They ended up making their way out of The Jasmine Dragon in 5 minutes, not 10. Practically thrown out of the shop by Zuko's uncle with a firm smile and a nasty glint in his eye.

On the way there they talked and by the time she'd settled down on the edge of the boardwalk she knew he loved spicy food, had never seen it snow and lived with his uncle. He tensed when she had brought up the subject of family so she treaded lightly, took what he had offered and didn't press for more. Meanwhile, she told him about Sokka and his carnivorous tendencies, her grandmother Kanna and the sweet, smooth way she always spoke when she wanted something done, the anger she really felt about her dad and brother leaving and the frustration knowing she was doing the same to those back at home.

He laughed genuinely at all her jokes, horrid as they were, and she liked the sound, liked the way it tugged dizzyingly at her insides and settled, fizzing, near her heart. They sat in silence for a while and watched the sun travel slowly across the sky together. Eventually Zuko broke it.

"My father is military. A general." He took a deep breath and Katara waited patiently for him to continue. "He thought his house should run the same as his troops. All about respect, obedience and punishment." Zuko faced determinedly out to the water but raised his hand to his scar, tracing it with deft fingers that knew every rut, every familiar dip and curve of the burnt flesh. "My entire family has served, for as long as we can remember. Even Uncle was a general once. My father's there now. My sister too, probably, we… kind of lost touch." Zuko hung his head and this time the pause was longer, but Katara waited still.

"My mother is… she's… gone."

Katara rested her hand on top of his. "I'm sorry," she said, "that's something we have in common."

Zuko looked up at her then, eyes watery, surprised and almost pleading for the story. She sucked down the discomfort in her chest and prepared her mind for the onslaught of memories that always followed closely behind the tale. "There was a commander stationed at our tribe in the South and very, veryunhappy about it. Power-hungry, violent – you know the type. He enjoyed hanging his station over the locals and making our lives a living hell. He found my mother and I alone at home one time, she sent me away to hide as soon as she saw him coming… but she didn't survive." Katara took a deep breath. "He was twisted, evil to his core." She looked Zuko in the eye. "He took her, but he was looking for me. Thought I had wronged him somehow, not paid him the respect a Southern child should. And my mother paid the price."

Zuko's good eye widened and she heard more than saw his breath catch in his chest. "I'm so sorry. That's awful."

Katara turned away and shrugged, kicking her feet lightly in the air to settle the nervous energy running through her veins. "It's okay. He was never charged but I found him, years later. He was pathetic, just an empty shell of a man. Nothing about him was the monster I once knew." She grinned then but it was sharp and dripped with the uneased tension of trauma still bent around a soul. "Broke his nose."

She heard Zuko huff out a laugh but when he spoke his tone was serious and dark, levelled with an apathy she recognized as grown, tended to carefully in self-defense and preservation. One she had found herself falling into more often than she liked. "You are kind. He deserved much worse than that."

"Yeah," she said, "he does."

"The man who killed my mother was military too. A General of the highest esteem," he laced his voice with venomous sarcasm before it took on a sombre edge, "and also my father."

Katara sucked in a breath. She hadn't expected that.

Zuko eyed her carefully, trying to judge her reaction but she kept calm, kept still and waited for him to finish.

"It was an arranged marriage. There never was much love between them but I really thought we were happy, once. Or could've been, I don't know." Zuko looked back out to the water and studied the sun as it started its slow crawl beneath the choppy ocean waves. "Sometimes I think it could've been a dream but I remember her waking me up in the middle of the night in a panic, telling me she loved me and then disappearing. Couldn't find her the next morning, but did find our housekeeper crying, scrubbing at a red stain on the floor. My father never mentioned my mother again after that, and I moved out 3 years later to live with my uncle when he thought my face would be better used as tinder." He shrugged as if his words didn't bear much weight, as if the experience hadn't woken him up fearful every night for the past 14 years.

Katara felt greedy around Zuko. She was confused and curious, she had opened herself up raw to him and she wanted to know everything about his life, everything he was. "I thought you said he still served? Surely..." She asked, making the decision to push, if not softly, giving him the option of an out.

Zuko didn't look back at her. "Yeah. He does." He said simply, and that was that.

The injustice coiled in her gut, tasted bitter in her mouth but she just sighed and laid her head gently on his shoulder. She knew well enough that sometimes words were empty and silences were full, so she let the silence speak and twined her fingers around his own. Zuko tensed momentarily at the contact but eased into it just as quickly, resting his head lightly on top of hers.

They sat in an easy silence once more and rested comfortably on the edge of the boardwalk. They listened to the waves rock against the shore and crash against the beams of the dock for what Katara could've sworn was only minutes, trading soft and whispered thoughts across the space between them, but with the way the sun sat full-bellied on the horizon, she knew was more like hours.

"I've got to go soon." Katara said regretfully, raising her head from where it lay, dragged it from where her eyelids had started to drip and droop with sleep. She yawned and stretched her arms above her head to shake them back into use.

"Right." Zuko responded distantly, pulling away. He wasn't used to things that lasted, but was weak to the thought of them anyways.

"Hey," she said, sensing his distance and twisting towards him to put a hand on his arm, "you'll write me, won't you? When I'm gone?" Katara tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear timidly and smiled, soft and nervous in the breaking light of when the day met and merged with night.

"You want me to?" Zuko asked, still cautious but almost hopeful. "Sure, I'd like that." He said with a small, answering smile of his own. The setting sun dipped fully beneath the water and in the dying light Katara could finally see the stars in the sky and caught in his eyes. She let herself fall into them without hesitation, just a little bit.

* * *

Katara rolled over onto her stomach in her bunk and held the open letter from Zuko loosely in her hands, as if afraid she'd damage the fancy, curling script that filled the pages in practiced, even strokes, hold it so tight the words would run away from her and hide. She smoothed out the folded creases once more and read it over again.

_Dear Katara,_

_How are you? Are you eating okay? Is training hard?_

_Things are pretty normal here. Uncle wants to add more pastries to the menu so he's been trying to teach me how to bake. We bought a new oven for the shop._

_I think Uncle doesn't throw the tea I brew out the window when he thinks I'm not looking anymore. So that's new. He says I am a 'competent water-boiler' now, which is an improvement. I'm aiming to reach 'adequate leaf-steeper' status sometime within the next decade. You'd think working at a tea shop would make it easier._

_Have you met up with your dad and brother yet? What are they like?_

_The sunsets at the dock are still pretty. You'd like them._

_Hope to hear from you soon,_

_Zuko_


End file.
